Five Goblin Pirates, marooned on a deserted island by treacherous crewmates, cobble together a raft and set off towards home through the Goblund Gauntlet, a dangerous pass full of sharp rocks, shipwrecks and merciless fellow pirates. Surviving the trip would be great. Collecting a big pile of loot would be better.

Goblins, Guns and Grog is a solitaire roll-and-write adventure game in which players attempt to navigate a treacherous sea route to make it to the mainland. Each turn, the player rolls dice to "Scavenge" (add items to the inventory), "Attack" (if in possession of cannons), "Loot" (in case of a successful attack), "Move" (along the map track, always straight forward towards the destination), "Adventure" (if the turn has ended on one of the X's scattered along the track). Every turn ends with eating, depleting the meager store of food that, if exhausted, causes the player to lose the game.

Arriving at the end of the track is somewhat easy and is nominally considered a "win." But points are only scored for looting the many ships along the way. To engage with these potential prizes, however, the player needs both cannons (to attack) and chests (to store loot). The catch? At the start of the game, the player's "ship" is large enough only to hold a pair of cannons. The ship can be expanded through adding Tetris-like pieces to the hull, slowly expanding the size until the raft has become a formidable warship. But focusing on acquiring lumber, cannons, and chests means passing up opportunities to acquire food. Players must therefore decide when to push their luck and when to play it safe.

Will you be satisfied to return to the mainland, safely and with a fully belly? Or will you risk it all to answer the siren call of gold?


Released in the March 2018 Board Game of the Month Club $5+ package.

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